Process of producing fabric containing kinky woolen pile



June 10, 1958 .F. H. MULLER 2,837,809

PROCESS oF PRoDucING FABRIC coNTAINING KINKY wooLEN PILE Filed July 5,1955 WOOLENPLY XIRN COMPOSED OFTWISTEZPL Y6 (TwusT SET THERETN) 37mm/67//5 WEZ YARA/ DRY/'NG Wigwam/D YARN RYm/c 7H@ PILE YARN INVENToRFerdinand H. Muller ATTO EY United States Patenti Hice PROCESS FPRODUCING FABRIC CONTAINING KINKY WOGLEN PILE Y Application Jnly s,19ss,serin1Nn. 519,911

1 claim. (ci. zii-16) The present invention relates to a pile fabricand, more particularly, to an improved fabric containing kinky woolenpile and a process of producing the same.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a processof the foregoing character which is simple and economical.

Another object is to provide such a process which is applicable to awide variety of fabrics.

Another object is to provide such a process wherein the pile can be madeby weaving, tufting or knitting.

Another object is to provide such a process wherein the yarn is in acondition as the pile is made therefrom which does not interfere withthe weaving, tufting or knitting operations.

A further object is to provide such a process which does not requirehighly specialized twisting of the yarn, complicated apparatus or largequantities of chemicals and the like.

A still further object is to provide a fabric produced by the foregoingprocess which has a pleasing and attractive appearance and is durable,even if subjected to rough usage.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon anunderstanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described, orwill be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages notreferred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employmentof the invention in practice.

In accordance with the invention, the foregoing objects are accomplished=by providing a process of producing a fabric containing kinky woolenpile, which process generally comprises wetting woolen ply yarn composedof twisted plys, stretching the yarn while wet at a tension equalingbetween of its wet breaking strength and almost its wet `breakingstrength, winding the yarn while in its wet and stretched condition,drying the yarn so wound to set the stretch therein, making the pilecontained in the fabric of the so treated yarn, and moistening the pileyarn. The fabric produced by such process contains woolen pile composedof twisted ply yarn which is kinky and resilient.

In the drawing:

The single ligure is a ow sheet illustrating the steps in the process.

The present process can be practiced in connection with a wide varietyof woolen ply yarns composed of from two to seven twisted plies,although more commonly such yarns are composed of two or three plies.The amount of twist in the yarn usually is varied with the size of theyarn but is within the range of so called hard twisted yarns which areproduced by conventional twisters. For example, two ply woolen yarns,'from 40 to 100 yards to the ounce, may be composed of plies each havinga Z-twist of between about two and about tive turns to the inchand pliedup with an S-twist of between about four and about twelve turns to theinch. It is also contemplated that the plies may have an S-twist and beplied up with an S-twist or a Z-twist, and that the plies may have aZ-twist and be plied up with a Z-twist. The foregoing twist is set inthe plied yarn in any suitable conventional manner.

Wetting of the yarn may be accomplished in any suitable manner forexample by immersing hanks, cakes, cheeses or packages of yarn in anaqueous bath or steaming the same, or by continuously passing one ormore lengths of the yarn through the bath or an atmosphere of steam. Thebath may have any desired temperature between the freezing point and theboiling point of water, but best results are obtained in thoroughlywetting the yarn by maintaining the temperature of the bath betweenabout F. and just below its boiling point. Also, if desired, the bathmay contain any suitable wetting agent which will not degrade the woolenyarn. Under cer-v tain conditions of processing, the wetting agent maybe a water soluble fatty acid soap or may be any detergent of the typeusually employed in scouring wool.

The yarn is stretched while wet by passing strands thereof about therolls or like elements of any conventional yarn stretching apparatus,and is elongated and so put under a tension equalling Ibetween about 25of its wet breaking strength and almost its wet 4breaking strength.greatest ultimately produce the most pronounced kinky effect in the pilecontained in the fabric.

The yarn is then wound on bobbins, cones, spools, tubes or the like inits wet, stretched condition by conventional winding apparatus toprovide yarn packages of any desired size.

The Wound yarn is next dried to set the stretch therein by placing theyarn packages in an atmosphere of dry hot air or superheated steam for asucient duration to remove practically the entire moisture content ofthe yarn. If desired, the bobbins or the like may be of the perforatedtype such as used in yarn dyeing to facilitate the circulation of dryingmedium through the wound layers of yarn.

The yarn is now ready to be made into the pile contained in the fabricand this can be accomplished in any known manner, for example, -byknitting, tufting or weaving operations. The yarn in being made into thepile runs smoothly through the machine employed and does not exhibit anytendency to curl, shrink or otherwise become distorted in a manner tointerfere with the machine elements handling the yarn during suchoperations. Also, by processing the yarn in the aforementioned manner,the tensile strength of the yarn is increased up to 50%, and loose yarnfibers are laid down making the yarn surface smoother, whereby the yarnhandles better and is less likely to :break in being made into the pile.

The pile yarn in the fabric is then moistened with water or wet steam inany suitable manner, or such moistening may be effected in the washingof the fabric or other treatment thereof involving the use of liquids.Such moistening relaxes the stretch in the pile yarn and causes the pileyarn to assume its original length and be rendered kinky.

The pile yarn is then Idried or is permitted to dry whereby the naturalresiliency of the yarn is restored.

The fabric produced by the process of the present invention is primarilyadapted for use as oor covering although it is obvious that fabricssuitable for other uses may be produced by such process. Also, thepresent process is adapted for producing fabric wherein the entire pileis kinky, or fabric of the two tone type wherein only a portion of thepile is kinky and the remainder of the pile is composed of yarn whichhas not been treated to render the same kinky. Apparatus for producingPatented June 10, 19758 It has been found that the yarns stretched theVsuch two tone fabrics is well 'known in the art. The processed yarn can'be used 'for Axminster, velvet or tufted rugs and the like.

To illustrate apracticalapplication of the present process, 50-yards tothe ounce of plied woolen rug yarn, composed of -two Aplys each having aZ-.twist of 4.3 turns to the inch and plied up with an S-twist o'f 8.5turns to the inch set therein, was wetted by passing Jthe yarn throughan aqueous bath, "heated to 200 F. and containing about 2% of analkylatedaromatic sulfonate typ-,2 wetting agent, at a Alineal speed toretain the yarn in thc bath for asufcient duration-to wet the samethroughout.

The `Wetyarn was stretched at a tension equalling about 50% of its wetbreaking strength and was wound on 'boblbins while wet and so`stretched. 'The 'bobbins were placed in a chamber and subjected to anatmosphere of hot air at about 212 F. yfor about six hours to dry thelayers of yarn onthe ibobbin throughout.

The so processed lyarn was Vwoven into rug fabric in the customarymanner as the ypile thereof, and the pile of the Vfabric was moistenedwith vwet steam. The woolen pile yarn returned to about its originallength and was rendered kinky, whereby ya. very close pile fabric ofpleasing and attractive appearance was produced.

By employing Lthe foregoing process a fabric is produced which containswoolen pile composed of twisted ply yarn, characterized in that -it -hasassumed about the same length as that of-an equivalent .linear sectionof the `same yarn not so processed, -that itis kinky and that Vitsresiliency vis about the lsame -as that prior -to -being s0 processed. Y

From the foregoing description, it will'beseen that the presentinvention provides a simple, `practical and economical process forproducing fabrics containing -an attractive kinky or crimped pile. Suchpile is durable and ean'with'stand Vrough usage.

It will be understood that the details and examples hereinbefore setforth are illustrative only and that the invention as broadly describedand claimed is in no way limited thereby.

I claim:

YThe process. .of'-producing a fabric containing .kinky woolen ile whichAprocess .comprises xrst wetting plied wnalenc 'n having a .weightrof.one ounce `for from 40 to 100 ya sfthereof composed of from two toYseyenplies each having a Z-twist of between about two and about fiveturns to the inch and plied up with an S-twist of between about four andabout twelve turns -to :the inch by passing the yarn through .anaqueousbath heated to about 200 F. at a lineal speed toretain the yarn in thebath for a sufficient duration to wet the same throughout, stretchingthe .wet v.yarn at a tension equalling between about 25% .of its we;breaking 'strength and valmost its wet breaking strength, winding anddrying the stretched yarn .and maintaining the vwound yarn in stretchedcondition, making the pile .contained in the fabric of the so treatedyarn, applying wet steam to the pile yarn torender the same kinky, anddrying the pile yarn to restore the natural resiliency thereof.

References Cited in ythe file of this patent LUNITED STATES 'PATENTS346,673 Mitchell Aug. 3, 188.6 1,511,212 Bliss Oct. '14, l1924 2,509,351Reinhardt et al. May '30, '1950 2,662,560 Jackson Dec. 15, '19532,676,384 Reinhardt et al. Apr. 27, l95'4

